I love every picture you posted and especially like the way the other flowers frame a couple of them like Which Way Jim, Helen Shooter, and Sabra Salina. You have a lot of patience to wait 3 years for a bloom, but oh they are so worth it. I love the form on Big City Eye x Unk. All of your seedlings are nice looking! Thanks!

Thank you very much Vickie, for the very nice comment, I really do appreciate it.

Loved all the colorful photos and your well organized article Margaret !

I applaud your patience and wit in dealing with the short season and cold environment
in your endeavor to grow and hybridize daylilies.

Your seedlings are outstanding, and I enjoyed the article and photos very much.
Very interesting and informative view of gardening in zone 3.

Thanks very much for this article, and summarizing the climate challenges so neatly.

I have a buddy in Montana for whom I was trying to figure out what daylilies might do well. I was going to give him dormants, but your comment about your elevation made me look at his - he is above 5000 ft! His nighttime temps (at the highest) are in the mid to high 40s! YIKES!

I guess the best (and only) bet is to look for the EE, E, and EM (per your advice) CMOs (because of his cold nights). I am guessing that maybe the best bet would be with the yellows and/or pastels. (How well do colors develop for you?) And maybe I should try to find daylilies whose blooms open recurved here (so they have at least a chance of opening flat *there*)?

(By any chance, do you grow 'Red Volunteer'? That is one of the daylilies I was considering for him.)

Thanks for really making me consider the challenges of growing daylilies under such cold higher altitude conditions.

Thank you Shirlee and Polymerous for you very nice comments.

@Polymerous Color develops fine for me, but of course it can change in other areas depending on soil conditions, you can select whatever color you think your friend would like , as long as they are the early blooming cultivars, not too ruffled or really thick petals.

I bought Red Volunteer in 2012, the blooms and color were beautiful, last year I did not get a single scape, hoping this year it has settled in and I get to see it bloom again. .

Margaret, such a lovely article and your hybrid's are wondrously beautiful! It is so valuable to learn what works in challenging climates, and to offer solutions that maximize success like focusing on early-bloomers. The colors you have brought forth in your seedlings, and even a great stippled cultivar, are really stunning - you have created daylilies that will thrive, and you've brought delight just by sharing them with us here!

Tina, thank you very much for the nice comment and the tip.

Thanks so much, Margaret. I appreciate your response.

I was so (selfishly) focused on the issue of elevation and short growing season, that I neglected to comment on your seedlings. I love the colors on 'Big City Eye' x unknown, and especially 'Black Eye' x unknown. I'm guessing that those two named cultivars are well suited to your conditions, and thus those seedlings are also? (I am thinking here about something Richard Norris wrote in an essay on northern hybridizing... his point being that you should select as parents those cultivars that perform well under your conditions (not necessarily under their hybridizers' conditions).)

You certainly have a hybridizing challenge there, but how thrilling and rewarding it must be to see those seedlings bloom under such adverse conditions.

Margaret, I have always loved the seedling in your avatar and, now that I see some of the others, heartily applaud your choices in the crosses. Beautiful stuff! (and great article )

Margaret. A feast for the eyes.

Thanks everyone for your kind comments, tips and all the .

Margaret, your daylilies are absolutely stunning. I applaud you for growing such beautiful daylilies in such harsh conditions.